I understand that being a Major League Soccer Referee is a no win situation. If you make a call that influences the game in any way, shape or form, you’ve got 11 players on the field extremely pissed at you. Then throw in a coaching staff, substitutes and (depending on where the game is) thousands of fans, that’s a lot of pressure.

But the biggest question I have and never understood is how do they define Red Card Rulings?

Intent, the Tackle or the Injury.

Pretty Simple you’d think right? These are the three things that are all taken in account, but never clearly defined within the rules of MLS (and obviously you always have to take in account the Human Error factor).

After watching the first two rounds of MLS and seeing the 5 Red Cards issued (Xavier vs Colorado, O’Brien vs LA, Larentowicz vs Chicago, Harmse vs DC and Parke vs C-Bus), I’m convinced we’ve seen all three (Intent, Tackle or Injury) accounted for, but not all necessarily deserved.

Let’s go over three of these -

1. Ciaran O’Brien – 1st game of the season for the Colorado Rapids, at home against the Galaxy, debut for the 1st Round draft pick, who entered the match in the 71st minute and after Colorado scored their 4th goal, O’Brien tackled Carlos Ruiz in the 90+ minute from behind/side which resulted in Ruiz tearing his MCL. Was this tackle Red Card worthy or just a clumsy tackle made a young player trying to make a difference in a match already decided, but wanting to earn a spot for the next match? I think O’Brien knew right away by raising his right hand up immediately that it was a tackle he shouldn’t have made.

2. Jeff Larentowicz – After New England gave up a goal in just the 4th minute on the road to the Chicago Fire, Larentowicz was ejected for a tackle on Brandon Prideaux in Chicago’s half in the 7th. A lot has been said about this tackle, but at that point in the match and where the tackle took place, I’m not so sure about the decision. Yes, it was a bookable offense, but so early in the match to deserve a red after already being down 1-nil? Intent to injure? Not so sure and you’ve just given the game to Chicago, not matter what. Maybe an immediate Yellow and a conversation between the Referee and Larentowicz would have been more suitable (we do see that kind of tackle every weekend on Fox Soccer Channel whether it’s English or Italian League)

3. Kevin Harmse – Down 2-nil on the road to DC, a neat little combination between Carl Robinson and Danny Dichio that dropped back to Harmse, a big first touch and then a face to face, leading over the ball tackle with studs showing and a left leg following through with all his body weight behind it taking out Gonzalo Peralta. On reputation alone, you’d think this was a worthy decision but Harmse’ tackle was a straight Red as his intent wasn’t to win the ball, but to get a piece of the player (paging Eduardo).

There will always be mistakes made by Referees, but as Clive Charles used to say “the good ones are never remembered after a match.”

image via Eteamz